Protecting Survivor Benefits
Across the country, states routinely take children’s Social Security, disability, and survivor benefits. Those benefits are the child’s property. Our reforms stop agencies from taking children’s resources and instead require that they be preserved in trust for the child’s future.
December 11, 2025News & Press ReleasesPhoenix, Ariz. - Today the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent letters to 39 governors calling for immediate action to end the practice [...]
May 2, 2025Events & TestimonyDear Mr. President, The Center for the Rights of Abused Children (Center) is driven to protect children, change laws, and inspire people – to ensure every abused child has a bright future. In [...]
January 10, 2025News & Press ReleasesToday, Governor Laura Kelly signed the nation’s first executive order to comprehensively reform the taking of federal benefits from foster youth. The order aims to ensure abused and neglected children are not deprived of vital resources while in care and to support their transition to independence.
June 26, 2024Events & TestimonyStrengthening Child Welfare by Reauthorizing Title IV-B of the Social Security Act to Provide Traditional Counsel for Children The Center for the Rights of Abused Children supports H.R. 8810 to encourage states to [...]
April 9, 2024Research & ReportsCenter for the Rights of Abused Children Releases a Model Executive Order Protecting Social Security, Disability, and Survivor Benefits for Children in Foster Care.
April 8, 2024Events & TestimonyThe Center for the Rights of Abused Children' s History on the Issue After becoming aware of the fact that states were using more than $160 million of children's federal benefits to reimburse [...]
April 8, 2024Research & ReportsSample Executive Order An order prohibiting the state department of child safety (department) from taking rightful federal benefits away from a child in foster care and requiring the department to preserve the child’s [...]
April 3, 2024News & Press ReleasesWashington, DC – A bipartisan coalition of federal lawmakers on both the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.
February 7, 2024Events & TestimonyRequires the preservation and protection of federal benefits that belong to a child in the care of the children’s division. These benefits include those that are administered by the Railroad Retirement Board, Social [...]
December 17, 2023Research & ReportsKendall Seal VP of POLICY at the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, and other experts discuss the passage and implementation of the first comprehensive state law in the nation to protect [...]